Confit de Canard (Duck Confit)

Ingredients

• 4 Duck legs, Moulard, Muscovy, or Barbary preferred; skin intact and dry
• For the cure
• 30 g per kg of duck legs Fine sea salt
• 4 sprigs Fresh thyme
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 tsp Black pepper, coarsely cracked
• 4 cloves Garlic, smashed
• 1 tsp Juniper berries, lightly crushed; optional
• For the confit
• 500 ml minimum Rendered duck fat, enough to fully submerge all legs in the cooking vessel

Method

1. 1
   Weigh the duck legs. Measure 30 g fine sea salt per kg of duck. Combine the salt with the thyme, bay, cracked pepper, and smashed garlic. Rub the mixture over every surface of each leg. Arrange in a single layer in a non-reactive container, cover, and refrigerate for 12–24 hours. The cure is complete when the skin surface has visibly drawn moisture and the flesh has deepened in colour.
2. 2
   Remove the legs from the cure. Rinse briefly under cold water — do not wash aggressively or the penetrated seasoning will be lost. Pat every surface thoroughly dry with kitchen paper. Set aside at room temperature while the fat is prepared.
3. 3
   Melt the duck fat gently in a deep, heavy, lidded vessel (a cast-iron cocotte is ideal). Lower the legs into the fat skin-side down, ensuring every leg is fully submerged. Place the lid on. Transfer to an oven set at 120°C. The fat is at the correct temperature when the surface shows only the barely perceptible shimmer of slow heat convection — small, lazy surface movements and an occasional bubble rising from the base. Any active, continuous bubbling signals the temperature is too high; reduce the oven to 110°C immediately.
4. 4
   Cook for 2.5 to 3 hours without disturbance. This is where the dish lives or dies: at the 2.5-hour mark, insert a thin skewer or the tip of a thin knife into the thickest part of the thigh, pressing to the bone. A correctly confited leg offers no resistance — the skewer passes through as though through soft butter, and the joint flexes freely when gently bent. A firm resistance at the bone means the collagen has not fully converted; return the vessel to the oven for a further 30 minutes and test again. Over the course of the cook, the kitchen develops a deep, rich, slightly gamey duck-fat aroma; by the two-hour mark this aroma reflects the finished character of the confit.
5. 5
   Remove the vessel from the oven. Allow the legs to cool in their fat to room temperature. To store, transfer legs and fat together to a ceramic or glass container, ensuring the legs are fully submerged. Refrigerated in this manner, the confit keeps for up to 6 weeks.
6. 6
   To serve: lift the legs from the fat and wipe off the excess with kitchen paper. Place skin-side down in a cold, dry pan — not pre-heated. Set the pan over medium-high heat. A gradual, building sizzle develops as the fat from the skin begins to render. Do not move the legs. The sizzle increases as the skin loses moisture. The moment to turn is when the sizzle becomes aggressive and crackly — audibly dry, like crackling — and the skin has crisped to a deep mahogany. Turn once and heat the flesh side for one to two minutes only.